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Restaurant Pub Guide
Tracking Your Money & Keeping Records
Master the core concepts of tracking your money & keeping records tailored specifically for the Restaurant Pub industry.
💡 Core Concepts & Executive Briefing
Understanding Cash Flow
Cash flow is the cash moving in and out of your restaurant or pub—day by day, week by week. Sales matter, but cash flow decides whether you can pay for beer deliveries, fresh produce, payroll, and the credit card fees that come with every service.
Think of your business like a keg line: money gets “pumped in” from dine-in, takeout, delivery, and bar tabs, then “runs out” through food, labor, rent, utilities, licensing, and debt payments. If the line keeps draining faster than it fills, you’ll feel it as soon as suppliers tighten terms or payroll day hits.
The Importance of Basic Records
For restaurants/pubs, basic records are your early-warning system. Good records help you answer simple questions fast:
- Are we actually profitable this week, or just busy?
- Did last week’s labor match the covers we served?
- Are we over-spending on food and inventory?
- Are cash deposits matching what Toast POS (or your POS) says we sold?
In practice, recordkeeping also protects you during tax season and audits because you’re not scrambling to rebuild a story from messy notes. The National Restaurant Association emphasizes operational systems, and this is one: if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Real-World Scenario (Typical Pub)
Say you run a pub with a busy Friday-to-Sunday pattern. You pull strong bar sales on weekend nights, but your cash is still tight on Mondays.
Here’s what often happens:
- You buy alcohol and fresh stock right after the weekend (when demand was high).
- You schedule new staff and overtime for service coverage.
- You pay a cleaner/vendor and get hit with a large credit card settlement.
If you only check your bank account once a month, you won’t understand why you feel cash-poor while sales are “high.” With proper records, you can see the timing: cash-in from POS deposits, cash-out from weekly supplier invoices, and any lag from payment processing.
The Bootstrapper’s Ledger (Restaurant/Pub Version)
You don’t need fancy accounting to start. Use a simple weekly ledger that ties your POS reality to your bank.
Each week, write down:
1) Cash in
- POS deposits (Toast POS, Square POS, etc.)
- Any cash drawer totals you reconcile daily
- Online orders paid out (platform payouts)
2) Cash out
- Payroll (including taxes and scheduled tip payouts)
- Supplier invoices (food, beer, spirits, coffee)
- Rent, utilities, insurance
- Loan payments / credit cards
- Any large one-off expenses (repairs, POS subscriptions, permits)
The goal: know your burn rate (how fast you spend cash) and your runway (how long you can operate before cash runs short). With restaurants, timing is everything—inventory buys often hit before the next cash deposit cycle.
Forecasting and Decision Making (The Week Ahead)
Forecasting isn’t a spreadsheet art project. It’s a practical planning tool.
Ask:
- Based on last 2–4 weeks of sales and your booking schedule, how much cash will you likely have in the next 14–30 days?
- When do supplier invoices land?
- Are you hiring for a seasonal event (sports playoffs, trivia nights, live music)?
Example: If your cash runway is short, you don’t stop selling. You change the plan:
- Hold off on non-essential menu changes until the next cycle
- Negotiate supplier terms
- Adjust scheduling to match average cover and expected bar volume
- Reduce waste by tracking high-loss items (especially proteins and premium alcohol)
Toast POS and industry resources commonly stress using real-time sales and cost data to run the floor. Use that same discipline for cash: cash-in from sales and cash-out from commitments.
Conclusion
In a restaurant or pub, you can look profitable on paper and still run out of cash due to timing, deposits, and weekly expenses. Track your cash flow with basic records, reconcile your POS deposits, and forecast so you can make staffing and purchasing decisions that keep you operating with confidence—before a bank balance forces your hand.
⚠️ The Industry Trap
The trap is waiting until month-end (or tax time) to look at your numbers. Picture this: your pub had a huge weekend, Toast shows strong sales, and you feel confident. Then Monday hits—payroll, beer delivery, and a service invoice all land within 48 hours. Because you never tracked cash-out timing against cash-in, you discover you don’t have enough cash until the next deposit cycle. Now you’re stuck either delaying supplier payments, under-staffing the floor, or using high-cost credit to bridge the gap. That “surprise” cash crunch usually wasn’t a surprise at all—it was missing weekly records.
📊 The Core KPI
Current Cash Runway: Weeks you can keep operating using current cash reserves:
Cash runway (weeks) = Current cash on hand ÷ Average weekly cash burn.
Average weekly cash burn = (Total cash out last 4 weeks ÷ 4). Aim to stay above 6 weeks for typical pub/restaurant cash timing (more if you’re carrying slow-moving inventory or have seasonal swings).
🛑 The Bottleneck
The bottleneck is “I have sales, so my cash problem can’t be that bad.” Many owners assume busy weekends automatically mean safe cash. But restaurant cash gets squeezed by weekly inventory buys, credit card settlement timing, and payroll schedules. When you don’t maintain simple weekly records, you can’t see the real issue: not profit, but timing. You end up making purchasing and staffing decisions based on gut feel instead of cash reality—then the business limits you when you need to move fast (like adding staff for an event night or ordering ahead for a holiday rush).
✅ Action Items
1) **Do a 20-minute weekly cash review (same day, same time):** Compare the last week’s POS deposits (Toast/Square/etc.) to your weekly cash-out list (payroll, suppliers, rent, utilities). Write the difference as “cash variance” so surprises stop repeating.
2) **Set supplier + payroll timing alerts:** On your calendar, list the exact days you pay payroll and the days supplier invoices typically hit. If you don’t know your timing, you can’t forecast cash.
3) **Create a simple 4-week average burn rate:** In a spreadsheet, total cash out for the last 4 weeks, divide by 4, and use that number as your “average weekly burn.” Recalculate every week.
4) **Forecast the next 2–4 weeks using your booking rhythm:** Use upcoming reservation/event nights to estimate revenue timing, then overlay it against known bills. If you’ll dip below your target runway, adjust scheduling and reorder decisions before you’re forced to react.
2) **Set supplier + payroll timing alerts:** On your calendar, list the exact days you pay payroll and the days supplier invoices typically hit. If you don’t know your timing, you can’t forecast cash.
3) **Create a simple 4-week average burn rate:** In a spreadsheet, total cash out for the last 4 weeks, divide by 4, and use that number as your “average weekly burn.” Recalculate every week.
4) **Forecast the next 2–4 weeks using your booking rhythm:** Use upcoming reservation/event nights to estimate revenue timing, then overlay it against known bills. If you’ll dip below your target runway, adjust scheduling and reorder decisions before you’re forced to react.
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